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During the fall and winter of 2001-2002, the New Hampshire Estuaries Project’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) developed a suite of environmental indicators to track progress toward the NHEP’s management goals and objectives. These indicators were fully described in terms of their performance criteria, statistical methods, and measurable goals in the NHEP’s Monitoring Plan published in March 2003 (NHEP, 2003). From September 2002 to April 2003, the NHEP Coastal Scientist prepared four “Indicator Reports” that summarized the available information and results of statistical tests for each of the indicators. The TAC reviewed and commented on these reports, and then recommended a subset of the most important or illustrative indicators to be presented to the Management Committee. Finally, after being presented to both the TAC and the Management Committee, 12 key indicators were incorporated in the 2003 State of the Estuaries report. The NHEP Coastal Scientist will update each indicator report at least every 3 years. A new State of the Estuaries report will be produced every three years. This report is an update to the first Shellfish Indicator Report, which was first published in September 2002.